Friday 29th January
SJD recced on the evening tide in very windy conditions. Despite arriving three hours before high tide found the mudflat already covered and metre high waves lashing the beach. 2000 Scoter out to sea.
| Snettisham North | No waders |
| Heacham South | 20 Curlew near tump |
| Concrete dam between the two beaches | 2000 Oystercatchers which soon left south towards the RSPB reserve. |
Team assembled during the evening with most arriving in time for the meal prepared by M&DW. With the strong wind due to continue the planned mist netting was obviously a non-starter. Hence a plan was made to do extensive recces and look for colour ringed Sanderling and Turnstone in the morning.
Saturday 30th January
| Snettisham South of Sailing Club (M&DW, JB, JR) | Roosting 3500+ Oystercatchers, 3000+ Knot, 1000+ Bar-tailed Godwit, smaller numbers of Redshank, Sanderling, Dunlin, Turnstone, Grey Plover, Ringed plover, Curlew |
| Snettisham North (PLI, MD, ET) | Nothing |
| Heacham South (PLI, MD, ET) | No Oystercatchers. 170 Curlew by cottages some of which went inland when disturbed by grockles. Also 6 Lapwing, 3 Grey Plover. |
| Falling Tide Site between Snettisham and Heacham (Phil, Emma, Mia) | 20 Oystercatchers collected before mussels uncovered. |
| Heacham Far North (TT, VdL, FU) | Substantial wave action and beach scouring but not all covered. Small groups of birds. 30+ Grey plover, 25+ Redshank, 50+ Lapwing, a few Knot and Curlew. |
| Hunstanton (TT, VdL, FU) | 2½ hours after high tide large number of scattered birds. Thousands of gulls, 2-300 Sanderling, 200+ Redshank, 150+ Bar-tailed Godwit. |
| Thornham (DK, BW, LL, CS) | 200 Sanderling, 80-100 Turnstone, 200 Redshank, 75 Bar-tailed Godwit. Lesser numbers of Knot, Grey Plover, Dunlin Ringed Plover and Curlew. One single Black tailed Godwit. |
Most people back at base by 10:00 when the plan had been to have porridge before holding the AGM, scheduled to happen sometime during the weekend, followed by a soup lunch before mist netting on the evening tide. With the continuing wind, various weather forecast providers’ web sites were consulted. Some of the computer model forecasts suggested the wind might ease, but after some consideration and observing the current wind strength plus the wind chill factor of the near freezing temperature it was decided to cannon net on the rising tide. The problem with this was that, on the recce, the Oystercatchers had not been seen in a normal place for a rising tide catch and it hadn’t been seen how they reached that position!
The timing necessary to go for this rising tide catch meant that the AGM had to be postponed until later and the team set out to set nets at 12:30. Two narrow full nets were set where the birds had been seen on the recce which was above the mussel beds. The promised soup lunch had been transported to the beach and was consumed before manning the nets for a catch. Initially 200 Oystercatchers and, briefly 50 Wigeon, gathered on the end of the mussel scar. Their number gradually diminished as other Oystercatchers flying from Heacham and aiming for Snettisham picked up birds from the mussels. A flock was also forming at the bottom of the beach to the south and it was noted the birds on the mussel scar stayed put until they were cut off by the tide and then flow to join this flock rather than walking ashore. Eventually with the mussels covered and the only bird left being a Turnstone decided to fire in order to add colour rings to it – and missed! Just to add insult to injury it was noted that 200 Oystercatchers had walked ashore in the ‘normal’ place near the tump (where, of course, they had not been during the recce nor very much during the past winter.)
Whilst waiting for the catch the base camp team had noticed over 100 Curlew go in to field at Ken Hill.
Back to base for the postponed AGM followed by a meal.
Sunday 31st January
Up 05:15. Wind not quite as strong, but car windows all frozen. Departure was delayed somewhat as the trailer lights plug chose this time to fall to pieces. Still arrived on site (Heacham Far North) in time, and just a single narrow full net was set behind the tide wrack washed up on this tide. Having set, the only birds on the beach were a small flock of mainly Grey Plover. By the time these were twinkled the tide had already dropped off to below the markers. The birds landed in front of the net and GA went to observe along the line of the net confirming they were between 8 and 11 yards from the net. Decided there was a chance of catching some and the situation would not improve so fired. Most birds beat the net out and it billowed back in the wind but a small catch was made, keeping the people who had not seen a wader in the hand before happy!
| Species | New | Control / Retrap | Totals |
| Turnstone | 2 | - | 2 |
| Ringed Plover | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Redshank | 1 | - | 1 |
| Totals | 4 | 1 | 5 |
A team of twice as many as the number of birds caught stayed to deal with them whilst the rest went off to Snettisham to set a net at the falling tide site (i.e. above the mussels, the idea being that the first birds returning from roost get it wrong and have to land on the beach before being able to get on to the mussel beds)
On arrival at that beach found a flock comprising 50 Oystercatchers and 100 Curlew in the usual roosting place. Waited for the tide to fall off sufficiently to set and were ready to get in to position when the rest of the team arrived from Heacham. Unfortunately by this time the Oystercatcher flock had been disturbed by grockles so was not available to twinkle. Equally unfortunately the nets had been set a little far down the beach so it was not very long before mussels started to become exposed out of reach of the nets. No Oystercatchers had been seen to arrive up to this point but as soon as they could go on to the mussel without first using the beach a flock of a few hundred birds appeared and went straight to the mussels. Rather than pick up the nets immediately the team watched the arrival of these Oystercatchers and other waders as then returned to feed when the mudflats became exposed.
Breakfast back at base and then departure by early afternoon.